Srinagar, May 13: Private Schools’ Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) and other representatives of private schools have welcomed the slew of measures taken by the Principal Secretary (PS) School Education Dr Asgar Samoon for reforming the education sector in Jammu and Kashmir.
The school representatives said that the reforms were long overdue and they will definitely overcome the deficiencies in our education sector. “The appointment of Dr Samoon at the helm of affairs of education department has been a boon for the entire education sector. The bold steps taken by him will definitely take the education sector to new heights whose primary beneficiary will be the student,” said the spokesperson of PSAJK. “We have always been demanding that a person of high calibre be made Principal Secretary School Education. And see how everything is changing for good after Dr Samoon took charge.”
The Association said that every year the private schools would pay crores of rupees to grease the palms of officials for obtaining archaic No Objection Certificates (NOC). “Now Dr Samoon has abolished all such unnecessary NOCs giving a huge relief to private schools. These NOCs were a hanging sword on the school management and hindered in their work to improve education. These NOCs also encouraged corruption,” the spokesperson said. “The department has also decided to give permanent registration to existing schools, which will give boost to local schools.”
The Association said that ironically these conditions had to be met only by the local schools and CBSE affiliated schools had never to worry about it. “The entire system was rigged to act against the local schools. But now Dr Samoon has taken the revolutionary steps to promote local schools by doing away with red tapism and roadblocks to development,” said the PSAJK spokesperson. “Our local schools are backbone of education who provide affordable education to lakhs of middle class students.”
Regarding school fee, the schools and the government has already come to conclusion that entire school staff has to be paid the salary during the lockdown period and for this parents have been asked to deposit the tuition fee of their wards with respective schools.
“The section of society like government employees who even get education allowance for children, traders of essential commodities, chemists etc who were not affected by the current lockdown need to clear their dues immediately, so that schools could identify the students whose families had suffered financially during the lockdown period,” said the spokesperson.
“The PSAJK has decided to identify such students and help them. We will be constituting a scholarship for affected students so that their education won’t suffer.”
The School Association have also decided to abide by all the rules and regulations for opening of the educational institutes hopefully by next month. “The government and schools are already on board and have devised the SOPs for opening of schools.
We have to balance between providing education to students and also take care of their health,” the spokesperson said.
The Association hoped that with new initiatives taken by Dr Samoon, the education sector will progress by leaps and bounds in a cooperative manner.
“We want to bridge the gap between government and private schools. We will work for child centric education and quality improvement for both type of schools,” the spokesperson said. “Both the parties are discussing how to approach it and sharing of resources is also being discussed.”
